If the Ship Sinks, We Have the Survival Kit!

Are you tired of the same old warmers, games and activities? This is the place to be! This blog displays a collection of top creative ideas taken from the best sites and sources to spice up your classes and involve your students in fun activities dealing with different skills and grammar topics. Welcome aboard!

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

The
Sunshine Award is an award given to bloggers by other bloggers. It is
given to "bloggers who are positive and creatively inspire others in the
blogosphere". It s such an honor to have received this award, thank you Cláudio Azevedo !

As with other similar awards, there are certain rules that must be followed:

Rule 1. Post the Sunshine Award logo on your blog.

Rule 2. Nominate 5 to 10 other wonderful bloggers.

Rule 3. Announce their nomination in their blog’s comment section.

Rule 4 .Mention links back to their blog, including a link to the person who nominated you.

Rule 5. Answer seven questions about yourself. This is designed to help people get to know you better.

Here are 5 great blogs you should know about:

1. Carla Arena is an expert when it comes to Ed Tech stuff. Her creativity and innovative ideas are limitless. If you are into technology, she's the one to follow! Collablogatorium

2. Thelma Peres and Elton Carvalho are very experienced professionals who blog about games to be used in the classroom. They always have very nice ideas to share with the teaching community! Games in Class

3. Magda Mendes is an English teacher and translator. Her blog is aimed at Brazilian students and she gives lots of useful tips to those studying English. She blogs in Portuguese and her blog is visite by thousands of people daily! Dicas de Inglês

4. Dani Lyra is an inspiring teacher who suggests tons of digital activities for busy teachers in her blog. Yo are going to love it! Digital Tasks 4 Busy Teachers

5. Domingos Di Lello is passionate about very young learners. His creative ideas inspires teachers all over. If you are into developing small projects with your students with a little touch of art, this blog is a must follow! Kids Love English

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Here is a very simple yet effective idea to practice the use of THERE WAS/THERE WERE.Level: basicSkill: writing, speakingGrammar Topic: There was/There wereMaterial needed: realia provided by students, notebook and pencilInstructions:Collect different classroom objects/personal objects from students and place them on the teacher`s table. Organize the objects on the table in such a way students can clearly see their position in relation to other objects (ex: a pen under a book, cell phones next to a plastic folder, a blue pen between two pencils, etc). Then ask students to open their notebooks and explain that they are going to carefully observe the objects on the table, close their eyes( in this moment the teacher should remove some objects and/or change their positions on the table), open them, try to notice what changed and write sentences using THERE WAS/THERE WASN`T/ THERE WERE/ THERE WEREN`T (ex: there was an eraser next to the cellphones, there were some books in front of the plastic folder, etc). Before checking their ideas, have students pair up/group up and compare their sentences.Tips:- You can divide the students into two groups and have them remove/re-organize the objects.- You can ask them just to say what changed instead of writing and make it a more dynamic activity.- Depending on situation, you can turn off the lights instead of having them close their eyes.- Students can prepare Yes/No questions and make it a more complex activitySource: Vinicius LemosPicture credits: Flickr/@banoootah_qtr

Sunday, March 17, 2013

This idea is a classic, but great if you want your students to develop a taste for writing. Informal, but fun and effective!

Level: Intermediate/ Advanced

Skill: Writing

Material Needed: sheets of paper
with different stories

Instructions:

The teacher should prepare papers
with different beginnings of different stories. Separate students into groups
of 5 or 6 students. Use the pieces of paper to rotate among the groups.After all the groups have had a chance to add
something to each story, ask different students to read them. Students vote for
the best story in the class.

Sunday, March 10, 2013

This is a very similar idea to a post published before ("Change Places If " ) but with some twists. Students will definitely enjoy working on this activity!

Level: All Levels

Skill: speaking

Material Needed: None

Instructions:

Have students make a circle with a
student in the middle. Give each student a piece of making tape. They should
use that piece of tape to mark their places on the floor. The person standing
in the middle gives the command. This person should say something that is true
for himself/herself, “Switch places if…you are wearing jeans” and then finishes
the sentence. Everyone who is wearing jeans should switch places, including the
student who gave the command. There is always going to be one person in the
center of the circle who is in charge of giving the next command

Source: Vânia Rodrigues, Adapted from The Monster Book of
Language Teaching Activities.

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Great practice if you want your students to learn and remember how to ask yes/no questions for good!

Level: Beginner/Intermediate

Skill: speaking

Material Needed: A set of colored
paper

Instructions:

In the beginning of the semester,
give each student a stiff colored piece of paper. Ask students to divide the
paper into two parts. Students should write YES and NO on each part. Tell
students to keep that paper, for they will use it every class to answer a
question. At the beginning of each class invite a student to ask a Yes/No
question. The rest of the class should answer that question by raising their
papers. This is a great activity for beginning-level students to practice
asking questions, and not only answering them.

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Prepare a set of 10 personal
questions such as “What’s your friend’s address?”/ “what’s his/her favorite
food?”/ “what’s his/her favorite school subject?”/”how many people live in
his/her house/apartment” Ask students to sit in pairs. They can (and should)
choose to sit with their closest friend in class. Have pairs sit back-to-back.
Give students a piece of paper (or they can also use their notebooks) and tell
them to number this paper from 1 to 10. Ask the questions and have students’
write down the answer that is true for his/her pair. Then have students check
what they wrote and, if they have the same answer, they score a point. At the
end, the pair that has more points wins.

Source: Vânia, adapted from The Monster Book of Language Teaching Activities

Vânia Rodrigues has been an EFL teacher for 22 years, 17 of which at a Binational Center in Brazil, Casa Thomas Jefferson. She has been a teacher, a Course Supervisor and is currently a Deputy Academic Coordinator at CTJ. She holds an M.A in Applied Linguistics from the Universidade de Brasília. Her main interest relates to nonverbal teacher-student communication.

Vinicius Lemos has been an English teacher for 17 years. He holds a B.A in Letras-Inglês (English Language and Literature) from Universidade de Brasília (UnB) and has been an EFL teacher at Casa Thomas Jefferson, Brasília, Brazil, for 11 years. He was a presenter at the 2010 TESOL Conference in Boston, USA ,at the 2011 ABS International Conference in Montevideo, Uruguay,at the 2012 TESOL Conference in Philadelphia ,USA and at the 2013 TESOL Conference in Dallas, USA.

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If The Ship Sinks, We Have The Survival Kit! Volume III Casa Thomas Jefferson Brasilia- Brazil